The Foundation in the News

Policy

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Foundation Celebrates Thirty Fifth Anniversary of the Urban Initiatives Program in Public Housing

Thirty five years ago, as part of the President’s National Urban Policy, a youth employment and crime prevention initiative was launched that the Foundation later built upon to create the multiple solutions to multiple problems in our present inner city programs and evaluations. Click here for the National League of Cities article on the original Urban Initiatives program.

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The Foundation Speaks Out About Firearms Violence Prevention Policy

After the December, 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and 7 adults in Newtown, Connecticut, The Washington Post published a letter by Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis. This letter responded to an op-ed by Joseph A. Califano, Jr, in the Washington Post on December 17, 2012.

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New York Times Letter On Quantum Opportunities and Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed

The New York Times published a letter on September 18, 2012 by Foundation President Alan Curtis on how the Foundation’s Quantum Opportunities program build character among inner city high schoolers who are at risk of dropping out. Quantum incorporates many of the kind of interventions advocated by Paul tough in his book How Children Succeed.

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The Moral Challenge of 'Shared Sacrifice' to Income Inequality in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

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National Policy and Training Conference Provides Technical Asstance to Twenty New Foundation Programs

In October 2010, at the Kellogg Foundation Conference Center at Gallaudet University in Washington DC, the Foundation held a three day national workshop to train and technically assist twenty new replications of its best practice Safe Haven-Ministation, Quantum Opportunities and Argus Training Models.

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Elizabeth L. Sturz: Learning for Living

Courtesy of Argus Community

The life of the late Elizabethy Sturz, an Eisenhower Foundation Trustee, led to her founding the Argus Learning for Living Center on East 160th Street in the South Bronx. Argus is a model for policy that gives priority to job training first, rather than work first, for high school drop outs and exoffenders. The Foundation now is replicating a new generation of Argus job training and placement initiatives.

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The Work That Remains: A Forty-Year Update of the Kerner Commission Report

On March 26, 2009 Eisenhower Foundation President and CEO Alan Curtis spoke to the City Club of Cleveland on the findings of the 40 Year Update of the Kerner Commission. Nearly 100 years old, the City Club is the longest-running forum of free speech in America. Past speakers have included Theodore Roosevelt, W.E.B. DuBois, Franklin Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Jimmy Carter, and (the day after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated) Robert F. Kennedy. Dr. Curtis' presentation was sponsored by Policy Bridge, Inc. and cosponsored by the Center for Families and Children; the City of Cleveland, Office of Minority Health; the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP; the Council for Economic Opportunities; the Neighborhood Leadership Institute; and Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

In his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama said, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small but whether it works….Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

On April 16, 2009 Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis spoke before the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, noting that it has long been the position of the Foundation that only programs that work should be supported, and that this is best demonstrated when careful evaluation of programs occurs. Click here to see a video of Dr. Curtis' presentation.

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On November 13, 2008 the Eisenhower Foundation and the Economic Policy Institute held a forum to assess our nation's progress over the last forty years and, more important, to discuss what is still left to do to move us closer to economic equality.

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Harvey Hollins III, vice president for the government and community affairs at Wayne State University, greets guests at the Detroit hearing held on November 17.(by Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News)

The Eisenhower Foundation is hosting a re-examination of the issues raised by the Kerner Riot Commission, beginning with forums in Detroit and Newark, two cities affected by the civil unrest of 1967. Read what the media says about these two public forums.

Eisenhower Foundation-The Sorbonne Forum Compares American, French and British Riots Over Poverty, Inequality and Race

Recent French Riots

(Paris) On June 6, 2007, the Sorbonne (the University of Paris) and the Eisenhower Foundation co-sponsored a one-day Forum in Paris on “Poverty, Inequality and Race: Forty Years After the Kerner Commission and Twenty-Five Years After the Scarman Report.”

The purpose of the Forum was to provide information that the Eisenhower Foundation could use in its fortieth anniversary update in 2008 of the final report of the 1968 Kerner Riot Commission.

The June 6 Paris Forum, on the anniversary of Europe D-Day, 1944, compared the causes and consequences of the uprisings in America’s impoverished inner cities during the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s to British riots in the 1980s amongst its urban poor, (which led to a British Commission chaired by Lord Scarman) to the recent French riots in predominantly poor, immigrant neighborhoods.

The presenters at the Sorbonne on June 6 included, in alphabetical order:

John Benyon, Professor, University of Leicester, Leicester (UK).

Sophie Body-Gendrot, Professor, the Sorbonne, Paris.

Alan Curtis, President, the Eisenhower Foundation, Washington, DC.

Jeffrey Fagan, Professor, School of Law, Columbia University, New York.

Romain Garbaye, CEUMA, the Sorbonne, Paris.

Fred R. Harris, Former United States Senator, Chairman, the Eisenhower Foundation, Washington, DC.

Anne Power, Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, London.

Vivien Stern, Member, House of Lords, London.

Leading Journalists Discuss Policy Impact of Media Coverage on Poverty, Race and Inequality

(Washington, DC) On December 12, 2006 the Eisenhower Foundation held the National Media Forum on Poverty, Inequality and Race. Over two dozen leading journalists, media critics and scholars spoke on these issues throughtout the daylong forum.

To frame the Forum, the Eisenhower Foundation Forum had posed the question: why has the quantity and quality of print and electronic media coverage on poverty, inequality, race – and effective policy to deal with these issues – declined so precipitously since the late 1960s, in spite of recent reporting on Hurricane Katrina and failed federal policy on the Gulf Coast?

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The Truly Disadvantaged and the Inner City: A Return to Education, Training, and Placement

(Washington, DC) November 6, 2006 -The Eisenhower Foundation held a day-long forum on employment training for youth, titled “The Truly Disadvantaged and the Inner City: A Return to Education, Training, and Placement.” Present at the forum were leaders from some of the most successful job education and training agencies in the United States (such as Job Corps, Youth Build USA, Vocational Foundation, Inc., Youth Opportunity Movement, Center for Employment Training, Remediation and Training Institute, and Alexandria Seaport Foundation).

The forum participants reviewed the underlying principals of the former Eisenhower Foundation funded Argus job training model for youth, and, by using the LaFrance Associates’ report as a starting point, discussed best practices in youth employment education, training, and placemen that could be used to enhance the Argus model and inform development of a new job training model by the Foundation. Click to read "Findings on Youth Employment Training Best Practices" prepared by LaFrance Associates.

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What is public morality? Many religious and secular leaders believe
it is more than personal morality – that it is about vision, and
what journalist Walter Lippman called “pursuit of the good society.”

How can we create a framework of public morality at a time when poverty
has increased four years in a row, tax breaks are being given to the rich,
domestic spending is being reduced, schools are becoming more segregated,
and the public sector has failed New Orleans after the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina?

One man who dedicated his life to the pursuit of the good society was
the late Father Geno Baroni, Assistant Secretary for Neighborhoods at the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development in the late 1970s and the highest ranking priest in the federal executive
branch of the government.

On what would have been Baroni’s 75th birthday, the Eisenhower Foundation
held a forum on public morality that gathered more than 30 government,
religious and secular leaders to discuss his legacy and explore ways it
can be put to practice today.

Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis and Trustee Jeff Faux of
the Economic Policy Institute spoke at Facing Hawai'i's Future: A Gathering
for the Common Good, a forum held by Faith Action For Community Equity
(FACE), a local coalition of churches, labor unions, grassroots groups,
tenants' organizations and native Hawaiian groups. FACE, the largest advocacy
coalition on the island, represents a constituency of over 38,000 that
engages in actions and programs that challenge the systems that perpetuate
poverty and injustice.

Curtis and Faux spoke on the growing economic rift in America and the
need for proven policies that help the truly disadvantaged, issues explored
in the Eisenhower Foundation book Patriotism,
Democracy and Common Sense.
As part of the Eisenhower Foundation capacity building program, the Foundation
provided critical media and organizing strategies to the coalition, helping
it to achieve coverage and legislative victories on housing and long
term health care. Read more about Eisenhower Foundation's
capacity building inititiave.

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Ex-Offenders Find a Voice
at First-Ever National Summit

Ex-offenders and organizers convene the first national conference
of Previously Incarcerated Persons at Delancey Street in San Francisco.

In November 2005, the Eisenhower Foundation, in partnership with the
Delancey Street Foundation and more than 20 other organizations around
the nation, hosted a forum in San Francisco that brought together the
concerns of previously incarcerated persons in America with the warnings
of President Dwight Eisenhower a half-century ago.

Eisenhower's farewell address, drafted by his brother Milton, warned
against the "military-industrial complex." Today, most observers
agree America has a "prison-industrial complex" -- in which
huge government prison-building expenditures are made as job-generating
economic development grants to rural communities, disproportionately white.

In response to the prison-industrial complex, the Delancey Street
Foundation and the Eisenhower Foundation seek to create a national movement
that empowers previously incarcerated persons, advocates for the
same rights people have in other industrial democracies, expands
our replications of Delancey Street, and significantly reduces the American
recidivism rate.

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Amy Goodman Interviews Clare Short In Recent Democracy Now! Episode

Goodman, at left, and the Right Honourable Clare Short, MP.

Crusading humanitarian Clare Short, a member of the
British Parliament, has been fighting against
hunger and poverty during her career in government. A contributor
to Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense, Short visited
fellow contributor Amy Goodmanat
her Firehouse studio to tape a segment of Democracy Now!
recently in New York. To read a transcript
of the exchange or watch
the segment (at
128k stream).

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Poverty Rise, Katrina Damage:
Both Could Have Been Avoided

Our prayers go out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which wracked
the U.S. on Aug. 29. The next day, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that
a million more Americans had entered the brewing storm of poverty in America
− which grew for the fourth straight year.

Next year, tens of thousands of Katrina's victims may be added to the
list of those who live on less than $19,300 for a year family of four.
The total is now 37 million Americans, with more well on their way there.

Eisenhower president Alan Curtis is featured in a nationally
syndicated column by William
Raspberryin the Washington Post, who
writes that this fourth-year economic disaster could have been avoided
– much like the catastrophic aftermath of Katrina. Read the full
article.

Poverty Standard 'a Joke' In Costly American Cities

In response to the Census data, the San Diego Union-Tribune correctly observed that $19,300 can't go far for a family of four in a major city.

In San Diego, the average small apartment rents for $1,210 -- or $14,520 a year. Subtract that from $20,000, and that family of four will be having a pretty lean year. Trouble is, that $20,000 is above the poverty level. This will shut the door to most poverty assistance.

Experts agree that the real income needed to escape poverty in America is significantly higher than the 40-year-old federal standard.

Eisenhower president Alan Curtis told the paper that "the long-term trend is to ignore the realities of the poor." For a look at what it takes for a family to really break even, please click here for the full story.

From East Coast to West Coast, Outrage Over Poverty in America

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the state of America's poor was vividly brought before us -- the face of a nation that many of us seem to avoid until disaster strikes.

As a nation consumed with the lives of the rich and famous, we rarely seem concerned about the 37 million Americans who live below the poverty level. Now will we remember these images of desperation, and work for change, or will the memories fade yet again?

On the West Coast, the San Francisco Chronicle discusses the recent shift in focus toward the poor. On the East Coast, Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher write of the new "celebrity poor" in The Washington Post. Eisenhower president Alan Curtis is quoted in both.

Many of the world’s current ills can be solved with sensible, mutually supportive policies – if its leaders could merely turn from immoral,
avaricious foreign and domestic policies to populist, democratic
policies that benefit average workers and their families.

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Labor and the Eisenhower Foundation came together as one April 27 at the National Labor College for a major forum based on themes addressed in new book, Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense.

“The Eisenhower Foundation didn’t just write a book,” said Labor College president Sue Schurman. “This is part of a campaign to take our country back and make it what it ought to be.”

Dr. Alan Curtis, editor of the volume, was joined by noted economist Jeff Faux and Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, Labor College faculty member, on the panel moderated by Dr. Schurman during sometimes contentious question-and-answer.

Each presenter received a standing ovation.

Dr. Schurman told 55 labor leaders from around the U.S. about the foundation’s roots in the civil-rights movement. “That was your calling – the social-justice movement,” she told the authors of the book who comprised the forum panel.

“You found the labor movement a natural extension of that movement. And if labor is going to grow, and help take back our country and take back our movement, then we must make common cause with people like the Eisenhower Foundation and the ideas contained in Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense.”

Curtis concluded “It is publicly immoral for a fifth of America’s youngest children to live in poverty,”. “It is immoral for America’s CEOs to earn 500 times more than America’s workers and 250 times more than its teachers”.

Poverty, unemployment, poor education, racism, and the highest incarceration rates in the world remain American dilemmas that diminish the credibility and "soft power" of the U.S. in the eyes of other nations.

Yet cost effective solutions exist, stressed Eisenhower President Alan Curtis in testimony given before the Congressional Black Caucus. Curtis concluded the issue is not lack of knowledge, but lack of will. "We already know what works for the truly disadvantaged and need to replicate it to a scale equal to the dimensions of the problem." For Dr. Curtis' presentation, click here.

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Washington Standardized Test Gets Failing Grade from Students

Students in Washington state have a new hurdle to clear in order to graduate -- the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. It's a hot topic among parents, and students say the test "is an unfair addition to graduation requirements."

In some schools, almost half the students fail the standardized test, beginning in 9th grade. If you don't pass in your senior year, you can forget about a high school diploma. For the latest on the controversy, please click here for a new developments in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The Foundation, in its continuing support of youth leadership development, provided a grant to Central House of Seattle to develop a youth media project at Ranier Beach High School. The project youth decided to address some of the issues surrounding the standardized testing, producing a number of public service announcements, which led to public debate regarding the testing.

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Rumors of the death of Social Security are greatly exaggerated, thanks in part to continuing immigration, experts said at a recent Eisenhower forum in Washington.

The thoughtful analyses presented at the forum are now available in The Baby Bust: Who Will Do the Work? Who Will Pay the Taxes?, edited by former Senator Fred R. Harris. This landmark book of essays by demographic, economic, and political science experts, examines the "birth dearth" and its causes, implications, and policy options.

When one looks at the Social Security system and immigration trends in the U.S., production is going to increase, not sharply drop as some predict. Wages will be going up, and as a result, the Social Security system will be as healthy as it has been in years.

At a time when both Social Security and Immigration Policy are center stage in the political debate, it is important to fully understand the sometimes technical and confusing issues.

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Pablo's Court

Pablo Eisenberg, Senior Fellow with the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University, tennis player extraordinaire and Eisenhower Foundation board of trustees member, writes regularly for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. We are pleased to share his ruminations on politics, principles and philanthropy with you. Here are his latest missives:

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Centros Sor Isoline Ferre, the center that houses the Foundation's program in the Caimito neighborhood of San Juan, PR has opened a brand new and enlarged facility to better serve the community. Click here to read the original story in Spanish and here to read the English translation.

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Jackson

Program seeks to change young minds

Click here to see what WBLT-TV3 reporter Mike McDaniel says about the Eisenhower funded program in Jackson.

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Irvington

Jihadah Sharif , a volunteer mentor for the Irvington Youth Safe Haven program, helped the program youth develop material for Kick Butts Day, to help keep young people from smoking. Click here to read the Star Ledger story.

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Eddie Banks of the Eisenhower Foundation speaks during a program to announce a groundbreaking community based initiative designed to help at risk middle school youth. In the background is Lester Sanders, Youth Safe Haven Program Director.

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The Tuskegee Youth Safe Haven and Police Mini-Station celebrated a grant award from the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation on Thursday, an event that featured the program's participating families, mentors, and all those who helped make the program what it is today.

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Providence, RI

First step on the right path

(Providence, RI) February 3, 2011 - Fifty children from the Olneyville, Hartford, Silver Lake and Manton neighborhoods are participants in an anticrime/social services program called Youth Safe Haven, for children 6 to 12 years old, that gives them after-school refuge in the brightly decorated Thomas J. Anton Community Center at the Hartford Park public-housing project.

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New Bedford, MA

Click the pictures above to enlarge

'Sky is the limit' with new dropout prevention program

(New Bedford, MA) January 29, 2011 - Students at New Bedford High School will be served by a new Quantum Opportunities Program, a partnership between NorthStar Learning Centers, the city's school system and the Eisenhower Foundation.

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(Oakland, CA) January 25, 2011 - With only 35 percent of Oakland's African-American boys graduating from high school, an Eisenhower sponsored Youth Safe Haven mentoring program is hoping to reverse the trend in one of the cities toughest neighborhoods.

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Des Moines, IA

Andrea Melendez/The Register

(Des Moines, IA) January 8, 2011 - The Eisenhower Foundation is supporting Spectrum Resources of Des Moines, a group that works with former offenders and other hard-to-employ people. With funds from an appropriation by Sen. Tom Harkin, a $250,000 grant will support green-jobs training.

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Milwaukee, WI

(Milwaukee, WI) November 20, 2010 - The Eisenhower Foundation has selected the United Community Center to receive a $405,000, three-year grant to
operate its Quantum Opportunities Program, a comprehensive youth development program that provides
educational, development activities, community service and financial incentives for students in grades 9-12.

See the Foundation's listing of the Executive Directors and Program Directors of the nonprofit organizations replicating the models - Safe Haven Ministations, Quantum Opportunities and Argus Learning for Living.

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SAFE HAVEN MINISTATIONS

Columbia SC

The city of Columbia, SC has been a partner with the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation since the mid 1980’s and has received vast coverage of its’ successful implementations of the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation programs. The program is starting the implementation of the a new Youth Safe Haven in the Hammond Village section of Columbia.

The program will partner with Benedict College, Village of Hope, the Columbia Public Housing Authority, the Columbia Police Department and the Developing Responsible and Mature Adolescent program.

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Irvington NJ

The Safe Haven is operating out of Parkway Recreation Center adjacent to Berkeley Terrace Elementary School. In addition to an experienced director, all other civilian staff are certified teachers and the police are providing an officer that is experienced with youth, problem oriented community policing and the Safe Haven model.

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Jackson MS

The Eisenhower Foundation will be working with Operation Shoestring to offer mentoring for students of Galloway Elementary School and Northwest Middle School, and problem oriented community policing for all residents of the neighborhood.

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Oakland CA

The Youth Safe Haven in Oakland serves the Havenscourt-Lockwood area, including Lockwood Gardens and Lions Creek. This program is a joint effort of the Foundation, Safe Passages, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), the OUSD Police and the Oakland Police Department.

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Providence RI

The Safe Haven Ministation program is located in the Hartford Park Community. The police assigned to the safe haven have 12 hour shifts that allow for coverage of the program when the safe haven is open but also allows for covering the community once the safe haven is closed for the day. The police have an excellent opportunity at problem oriented community policing success with this type of schedule.

One of the highlights of the Providence program is their partnership with Rhode Islanders Sponsoring Education (RISE), a state-wide mentoring initiative that has allowed for one-on-one mentoring for the Providence Safe Haven youth.

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San Juan PR

The Youth Safe Haven is under the guidance of Centro Sister Isolina Ferre, which has been a partner with the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation since the mid 1980s and has survived two major storms and other difficulties to remain a beacon in the community of Caimito. The program is staffed with a very professional group all degreed in service provision.

What is exciting about the San Juan program is that by June, 2011 the Centro will open a new facility that will house the Safe Haven Ministation as well as provide services to the entire community of Caimito.

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Toledo OH

The Safe Haven Ministation is a new member to the family located in the North Toledo section of the city and under the administration of the James C. Caldwell Community Center.

The safe haven program advances positive youth development by incorporating after school and summer tutoring, life skills, mentoring and social enrichment programs under the guidance of civilian and police staffing.

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The Safe Haven Ministation in Tuskegee receives support from a number of local partners. The Tuskegee Housing Authority is providing support through the use of a 5 bedroom unit, program transportation, building maintenance, accounting services, and a program liason/assistant. The Tuskegee Police Department is providing an on-site police officer, but also regular patrol officer visits with the youth and program support for Safe Haven activities. The Macon County Sheriff’s Department is making deputies available for program activities and assistance with Safe Haven programs.
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Auburn University/Alabama A&M University) has committed Extension Agents to the Safe Haven program; and Tuskegee University has provided a variety of support from its various departments, schools and programs, there has also been support from the University’s student body. City of Tuskegee Summer Feeding Program provides free offsite nutritional meals for breakfast and lunch each week of the Safe Haven Summer Camp program. Other agencies have committed to make their services available through referrals, counseling and onsite training. These include: East Central Alabama Mental Health Inc., Macon County Juvenile Probation Department, Alabama A & M University and the Macon County Board of Education.

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QUANTUM OPPORTUNITIES

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Albuquerque NM

Quantum serves the students of West Mesa High School. While the Quantum Associates, as the participants are known, are all Hispanic, some are from old New Mexican families that have been in the area for several generations and others are from families who have immigrated more recently.

In addition to traditional Quantum activities, special attention will be focused on technological literacy and the use of media production to enrich learning.

The pictures above are from the open house hosted by Youth Development, Inc. of Albuquerque, NM, celebrating two new programs funded by the Eisenhower Foundation. In attendence were Mr. Chris Baca, YDI President/CEO; Concha Cordova, YDI Associate Director, Education, Employment & Training Division; Veronica Martinez, Constituent Liaison, for U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich; Sara Cobb, representing Senator Tom Udall; Patrick Newman of the New Mexico Workforce Connection, Central Area Workforce Investment Board; and representatives of the Quantum and Argus programs.

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Baltimore MD

The Quantum Opportunities Program serves youth at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in Historic West Baltimore This geographic area is one of Baltimore’s premier historical African-American neighborhoods. It has been home to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, musician Cab Calloway and Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, a founder of the Civil Rights movement and pioneer of non-violent resistance in the 1930s. Since the 1960s, the area has seen significant economic and structural decline, but through programs like Quantum and the associated Argus job training program, there is hope for a rebirth of this area.

During the early months of Quantum, the associates are working on the 20 principles in The Success Principles for Teens by Canfield and Healy. They are also developing leadership skills by helping write proposals for grants from Pepsico and DoSomething.org. If the grants are received, they will be used to support a project to help local residents understand the problem of childhood obesity.

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Boston MA

The Quantum Opportunities Program serves the high school youth of the Field’s Corner neighborhood of Dorchester. Working with Jeremiah E. Burke High School, where the program is located, Quantum provides remedial education, youth development activities and youth leadership training to a mix of African American, West Indian (Jamaican and Trinidadian) and Cape Verdean students.

So highly regarded is the Quantum program, that the Foundation, the Dorchester Youth Collaborative and school administrators are developing plans to make Quantum a regular part of the school curriculum for each incoming freshman cohort.

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Milwaukee WI

Serving the predominately Hispanic area of the Near Southside, the Quantum program at the United Community Center works with a mix of Puerto Rican and Mexican American high school students from several high schools. While these students are from different high schools, they all come from the same neighborhood, most having attended the same middle school.

True to the original Quantum model, Milwaukee is focusing on education and preparation for college, including working toward receipt of scholarships. Even skill development activities will have an academic component.

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St. Petersburg FL

The Quantum replication in St. Petersburg is working with both Gibbs High School and St. Petersburg High School. With youth most at risk of being involved in problem behaviors during the after-school hours, the youth of St. Petersburg are particularly at risk, because school begins early and concludes at 1:00 PM, giving the youth an extra two hours of high risk time.

The most diverse of all current Eisenhower Foundation supported Quantum programs, the Associates of the program are being exposed to many opportunities from which the youth of low income communities are often excluded, such as the Dali Museum.

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Toledo OH

The Toledo Quantum program is located at the Caldwell Community Center, across the street from Woodward High School, the academic partner for Quantum. In addition to the proximity of facilities, the Caldwell Community Center has a long history in the diverse community, having been founded in 1904.

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ARGUS LEARNING FOR LIVING

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Albuquerque NM

Argus in Albuquerque works with Central New Mexico Community College to provide young high school dropouts with the training necessary to have a career web that will include opportunities in photovoltaic (active solar) panel installation and manufacturing, as well as potential advanced training as apprentice electricians.

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Baltimore MD

The Druid Heights area of Baltimore is undergoing a renewal, thanks to the efforts of the Druid Heights CDC. The Argus program, which will assist local youth in getting their GED and job skills training in housing renovation, will play a key role in this renewal.

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Boston MA

(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino talks with J’Shaun Reddick, who is part of a group of local Argus youth helping the city maintain foreclosed properties in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan.

The Dorchester Youth Collaborative, working with Dotwell and College Bound Dorchester, is providing job training opportunities for youth in an area where gangs are a formidable barrier to any youth program.

The program will work with an extremely diverse group of young drop-outs: African American, Vietnamese, Cape Verdan, West Indian and others, both male and female. In addition to work on their GEDs and job skill training, the program youth will receive wrap-around services to help them overcome any barriers that they may face as they work toward jobs with a future.

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Des Moines IA

Unlike Argus programs in other cities, which focus on high school dropouts age 16 to 19, the Des Moines Argus program will focus on youth who have been involved with the juvenile justice system. They will receive GED training or credit recovery assistance, job readiness training, job training in fiber-optic cable installation and repair, and job placement assistance. They will also be provided with wrap-around services to improve their chance of success.

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(Washington, DC) March 11, 2009 - Jennie Amison, Eisenhower Foundation Director for Ex-Offender Programs and Executive Director of Gemeinschaft Home testified before the
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, chaired by Congressman Mollohan of West Virginia.

(TOKYO, Japan) Feb.1, 2007 – In the early 1990s, the Eisenhower Foundation looked to Japan when developing the Koban – Youth Safe Haven model. Now Japan is looking to the Foundation for help reintegrating prisoners into society.

Jennie Amison, Director of Replications for Previously Incarcerated Persons at the Eisenhower Foundation and Executive Director of Gemeinschaft Home spent two days lecturing and speaking with officials in Japan about the successes of the reentry program she runs in Harrisonburg, VA.

January 22, 2007 - Officer Anthony Macaione received the award for Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer for his ability to act as a mentor and role model as the department's housing officer.

"He has won the hearts of many children who have gotten the chance to see a police officer as something more than a cop with a gun," Bolduc said, reading Macaione's nomination from police.

Macaione said this was the first time he's received an award of this magnitude. He added he could not have done it without the support of the Rochester Housing Authority, Rochester Youth Safe Haven, fellow officers of the Rochester Police Department and his family. Click here for the story.

Des Moines: An Extraordinary Summer School

(BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER) Mike Smith, 14, tries to spell a word during a word game at Harding Middle School's summer school program on Tuesday.

(Des Moines, IA) July 19, 2006 - "Early in the morning, 40 or more east-side kids in Des Moines tumble out of their summer slumber and hop on the bus or travel otherwise to Harding Middle School." This Full Service Community School is helping kids raise their grades. Read the story.

(Honolulu) June 13, 2006 - "The Eisenhower Foundation has worked for 25 years to bring solutions to the many problems facing this country's disadvantaged communities. Now, it hopes to bring more of its solutions to Hawai'i." Read Michelle Takemoto's commentary.

Building stronger youth

Graduates of the Quantum Opportunities Program traveled to Mississippi in May for their graduation trip. Students and advisors helped with the ongoing clean-up of the area affected by last year’s devastating hurricanes.

(Dover, NH) July 21, 2006 - Since 1994, Seymour Osman Community Center (SOCC) has served as a home away from home for Dover youth. Not only do the youth's grades improve by participating in the project, but they also learn the importance of service. Read more about the success of the programs.

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) welcomes youths from the Nashua Youth Safe Haven Program. This is the second group of program youths to visit Washington DC this summer. Many of the youths are recent immigrants, who are learning first hand about their new home.

(Herndon, VA) June 15, 2006 - "When Herndon’s Quantum Opportunities Program, a four-year after school tutoring program for Herndon High School students with below average grades, was launched, no one, not even the program’s founding director, thought that they would be able to help their students turn their academic lives around." Now 17 of 20 students are graduating. Read about the tremendous success.

No Doubt About the Success of the Quantum Opportunities Program

(Dover, NH) June 2, 2006 - There can be no doubt about the success of the Quantum Opportunities Program in Dover New Hampshire, according to an Op-Ed that appeared in Seacoast Online. Not only did the original group of students benefit, but local sources provided funding for additional students to participate. Read about the exciting outcomes of this four year program.

New Hampshire Quantum Youth to Lend a Hand for Katrina Victims

(Dover, NH ) May 29, 2006 - Four years ago, a group of at-risk students, with a low probability of graduating high school, joined the Quantum Opportunities Program. Now they are graduating and several are heading to Waveland Mississippi to lend a hand in the Katrina cleanup. Read about the success of these young people.

(Herndon) April 13, 2006 - The Eisenhower sponsored Youth Safe Haven in Herndon, Virginia, is celebrating its first anniversary serving a diverse population of local and immigrant youths. Read the story here.

High School Seniors Prepare to Say Good Bye

Leigh Scott and Talesha Burke

(Herndon) February 13, 2006 - Quantum Opportunities after school program
comes to an end as Herndon High School seniors prepare for graduation.
Read more about the success of the program in the Herndon
Connection Article.

Full-Service Educators Gathered to Share Successes, Plan for the Future

Recently, the Foundation brought educators and parents from full-service
community schools across the country together in western Pennsylvania.
The East Allegheny Middle School, an Eisenhower Foundation-funded full-service
school, were gracious hosts to our Sixth National Cluster Workshop. The
theme of the workshop was "Sustaining our Work-Creating Structures
of Permanence." Around 50 participants shared their experiences and
listened to speakers from other successful community schools.
To read an article from the McKeesport Daily News about the workshop.

Students in Nashua, NH, have a new place to go after school – a new Youth Safe Haven sponsored by the Eisenhower Foundation at the Police Athletic League there. It will be a cooperative effort involving local police, the Nashua School District, the Nashua Housing Authority, and the New Hampshire National Guard.

Many local notables turned out for the ribbon cutting in March, including the mayor, police chief, and others. For the story, please click here.

U.S. Senator Judd Gregg was on hand at the Seymour Osman Community Center in Dover to receive the Champion of Children award. The Eisenhower Foundation funds programs in three New Hampshire communities: Rochester, Dover, and Somersworth. See Full Story.

National Cluster Workshop GathersProblem-Solvers from Across the Country

Leila McDowell, Director for Capacity-Building Replications, helps participants to become more media savvy -- and thus more effective with members of the news media.

The Eisenhower Foundation theme of “Multiple Solutions for Multiple Problems” was on demonstration at the famed Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. in June as the foundation hosted more than 60 partners from around the country to the National Cluster Workshop on Youth Safe Haven and Quantum Opportunities Program replication initiatives.

While the three-day workshop was designed to focus on youth safe haven/police ministations on the Quantum Opportunities program for high school youth, participants also took part in panel discussions on grant writing, media training, effective youth development strategies and better policing in public housing.

“These people represent the front-line of Eisenhower programs around the country,” said Johnnie A. Gage, Eisenhower Foundation COO. “The forum gives participants the opportunity to share their experiences and problem-solve," he said. "We want to act as a clearinghouse to impart information and discuss lessons learned.”Please click herefor scenes from the workshop.

Herndon Youth Safe Haven
Offering Alternative to Gangs

Congressman Frank Wolf holds a $75,000 “check” from Eisenhower CEO Alan Curtis, left. At right is Vecinos Unidos president Chris Griffin and Herndon vice-mayor Darryl Smith, far right. HERNDON, Va. (April 1) – The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, with the help of U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), opened a new Youth Safe Haven here today – with the twin goals of improving academics and giving young people an alternative to street gangs. For the full story, click here.

Previously, Congressman Wolf had joined Eisenhower Foundation staff, Herndon police officials and students from Herndon High School to celebrate the opening of the Quantum Opportunities Program there.

Above, Congressman Wolf and Dr. Alan Curtis, Eisenhower CEO, discuss how the Quantum Opportunities Program will help Herndon's high-school youth with its four-year, computer-based model.

Below, Some of the youth being helped by the Quantum Opportunities program.

It was a beautiful day to celebrate a remarkable public-private partnership effort between the Eisenhower Foundation and Telesis Corp., despite the early threat of rain. The Rev. Terry O. Corbin – brother of the late “Miss Patsy” Hartsfield – prepared to make his introduction while about 60 audience members enjoyed the fine weather.

Then, about 30 feet away at the intersection of 21st and Maryland NE, three police cruisers broke the stillness of the morning by converging at once, tackling three young pedestrians and handcuffing them, face-down on the ground.

“It was as if it was staged. People asked me: ‘Did you hire actors to do that?’” said D.J. Ervin, an Eisenhower analyst. “The timing was amazing.”

It was as if circumstances converged to underline – in bold – the urgent need for the Youth Safe Haven that Eisenhower established at Carver Terrace two years ago.

For teens in poor communities, The Eisenhower Foundation is replicating the Quantum Opportunities Program, for at-risk teenagers that has won the praises of education experts, policymakers and The New York Times. The program offers academic tutoring, computer based learning, stipends and money towards college. Initially, Quantum will be replicated in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Virginia.

Positive Youth Development and the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation Program

The service components of the Youth Safe Haven/Mini-Police Station programs are based largely on a theoretical framework known as Positive Youth Development, which focuses on the developmental needs of youth and building the assets that are required in order to make a successful transition to adulthood. Read our recent report on this programwhich provides an overview of positive youth development theory and shows how it is related to major features or strategies that serve as a foundation for effective programs.

Full-ServiceCommunity School Replications

"Community schools" or "full-service community schools" are partnering with private non-profit agencies to provide whatever services people need, from GED and job training classes to family therapy, homework help, and after-school programs.

An obscure Japanese import, the Koban, is racing across America
-- reducing crime and increasing safety along the way.

Effective Capacity Building

Alan Curtis, President and CEO
"Thirty six months with a group is the threshold time period for good outcomes" finds the Eisenhower Foundation in a new report Lessons from the Street, an assessment of capacity building and technical assistance provided by the foundation to over 80 non-profits during the past ten years. (Click here for the executive summary)

Eisenhower People

Reggie serves potluck with Cpl. Alfred Stewart at the Carver Terrace housing community in northeast DC.

Reginald Grant is one of many people who make Eisenhower Foundation programs run on time. Reggie is site director for the Carver Terrace Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation in Washington, DC, as well as its Quantum Opportunities Program. To find out why Reggie is so remarkable, please click here.

Officer Triano and his family

It takes a special kind of police officer, like Tony Triano, to work with kids as their primary job. Though a promotion means he isn't working directly at the site, he still contributes to the welfare of the youth. To find out more about one of the dedicated officers that have worked with Eisenhower Youth Safe Haven / Police Ministation programs, click here.